DISENGAGEMENT AND 'BEST-PRACTICE'

DISENGAGEMENT and 'BEST-PRACTICE'

When I ask adult dys-lexics about their schooling years, and specifically ask what it was that made the positive difference in that nightmare setting, typically the response I get is something along the lines of, “Miss Jones, She made the difference.”

And what the Miss Jones of the world did can be adequately summed up as ‘Gave time, consideration, and TLC’.

So there you go, as far as the dys-lexics of the world are concerned, what any teacher needs to do, in order to deal with the problems associated with this elusive, amorphous thing called ‘dys-lexia’ is give copious quantities of time, consideration and TenderLovingCare.

Great – but not great, as any teacher would just role their eyes and sigh, suggesting that this is what they have been doing their entire teaching career – and the situation still seems to be getting worse.

So, lets look at the scene from a different angle to see if we can find some better sense – or at least a way in.

If we were to focus on the negative classroom experience of both the student and the teacher, we could say that it is characterised by an overriding notion of DISENGAGEMENT – meaning that the child is to some extent removed from what is going on in the lesson.  This could include;

1. - Being bored and dreamy in class and not actively paying attention;

2. - Being physically present, but otherwise withdrawing their energy from the situation (except perhaps to entertain themselves);

3. -Being physically absent from class.  We currently have Secondary schools with up to 40% absenteeism per day.  (That is, 40% of the pupil number are actively absent from at least one class-session per day).

Although it could be argued that point 3. above is really only an issue at secondary level, its preliminary levels are well documented at primary level and are evident in most if not all schools.

If it is the case that active disengagement is at least one of the major factors in the educational career of the dys-lexic child, then it certainly behooves as to ask what measures we can possibly take to prevent this creeping disease.  In fact this is a commonly asked question and is being examined by researchers and skilled educators all over the world.

Unfortunately when we ask a question of this nature we typically lead ourselves into looking for gaps in our system, for things that we could do as-well, instead-of, differently, or better.  What we are less inclined to do is examine our current belief systems, our current understandings of ‘good practice’, or even ‘best practice’, and check to see if they really are worthy of such classification.

Working one-to-one for over 30 years with both children and adults who have experienced difficulty in our education system, I have enjoyed a privileged position and a privileged relationship, and via this have been given information that, sadly, has taken me a life-time to process and recognise.

Although I seldom have directly asked 10 year old lads what it is that teachers do that makes the classroom situation so intolerable for them, when I look back and sense their frustration, anxiety and anger, I recognise a common theme in the feedback they have been giving me.  For them it is not about what the teachers are not doing that creates their difficulties, but rather it is about what the teachers need to STOP DOING.

Their feedback strongly suggests that teachers as a body hold, value and are guided by  a whole range of beliefs and practices (truths) basic to accepted teaching philosophy and style that incrementally erodes the diesel student’s self-concept, their experience of success, their willingness to participate, and eventually their active engagement in the classroom.

Asking for feedback from the students themselves is risky, (some would even say it is unprofessional  and unethical) in that they may tell us something that we don't want to know. Irrespective of this potential debate, any seller of consumer products knows that customer feedback is essential to survival in the marketplace.  Our education system studiously disregards the opinion and the voice of the 'failed' student. To my ears the feedback from the children themselves is that their failure and withdrawal is a product of teacher belief and activity, and that teachers are unwittingly undermining the ability of some children in the classroom, and are inadvertently creating the very problem that they are working so hard to remove.

Although such a statement will predictably and understandably generate an indignant self-protective response from members of the teaching profession, there may be more value in it than some are initially willing to allow.

Yes it is the case that exhaustive and ongoing research has led us to our classroom philosophies, beliefs and style, and that the overwhelming evidence is that this has led to some remarkable and positive techniques and approaches in teaching – but we know that it is still the case that our system does not work for a significant proportion of the children.  Ironically but understandably these are the children who consume a disproportionate amount of any individual teacher’s energy and patience.

In my new book (DYS-LEXIA - THE BIGGER PICTURE), to be published early next year, I will spend some time looking at ‘teaching truths’ - beliefs that are so implicit to our teaching head-space that often we do not even recognise that we hold them, and operate within them.

These ‘teaching truths’ have evolved because they equate with effective teaching with most of the children in the classroom, and we naturally hold fast to methods that are seen to be effective.  But we know they are only effective for MOST of the children we teach.  What we fail to see is that for other children these very same principles, methods and strategies may be actively problematic, and creating a world-wide problem of 'disengagement'.

Laughton King

August 2012

AM I DEVELOPING DYSLEXIA?

"AM I DEVELOPING DYS-LEXIA?”

Yesterday I met a gentleman who, on hearing of my interest in dys-lexia, commented that he thought that with his advancing age – he was 70 ish – that he might be developing dys-lexia..

He explained that he finds himself reversing numbers, saying things back to front, and  forgetting names or words – things that he, and other members of the public often see as being indicators of dys-lexia.

I explained to him that dyslexia is not deterioration of the brain, nor a disease that a person picks up or develops, and indeed that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with the dys-lexic’s brain.  I briefly outlined my belief that it is most commonly related to some traces of left handedness (or at least left-sidedness) in the person’s family, and that it is actually genetic and normal.   He immediately acknowledged left- handedness in his father’s family, so I went on to explain that he was probably just slightly into the dys-lexic mode, that he would always have been of this style, but in his younger years would have gone to quite considerable lengths to hide it, and overcome it.  This would have been helped by fact that his degree of dys-lexia was probably minor, and the added fact that he was obviously a very intelligent guy.

It strikes me that human beings are social animals and are generally highly motivated to be accepted by others.  In our great need to be acceptable, and therefore ‘normal’, we tend to try to minimize any negative points of difference.  We do this both consciously and unconsciously – especially when we are young and vulnerable, and when peer pressure is greatest – seldom noticing just how much effort and energy it takes to do so. 

In this way some of us are quite successful at hiding our dys-lexic tendencies from other people, and indeed from ourselves.  (I have met some distinctly diesel people who become quite agitated, defensive and angry when some insensitive intruder suggests that they might be 'dyslexic' – their anger observably being based in their presumption that there is something ‘wrong’ with the dys-lexic person.)  For others of us who are significantly dys-lexic, our style may be quite overt and beyond our control, and we couldn’t hide it if we tried.  In reality most members of the public are not at all concerned if some particular person is dys-lexic or not.

As we get older most of us get a little more comfortable with ourselves, and a little less hung-up on what other people may, or may not think of us.  Being more comfortable with who we are, and how we are, we also figure that it is perhaps not all that important to cover up some of our personal foibles, and so they start to show through.  It is also the case that the older we are the less energy we have, and as with the gentleman I met, the evidence of his dys-lexic style was starting to come through.

No, we don’t suddenly (or even slowly) develop dys-lexia in our later years.  We are born with a  brain-wiring style, and we have the ability to exercise some control over our own presentation of this.  With advancing age, and retreating energy our priorities change and we let things slip through because we know that they simply do not matter.

Laughton King

June 2012

FEAR - as part of Dys-lexia.

Have you ever seen the parade go by - all the musicians in uniform, blowing, playing, marching - and one of them is so out of step?

Today I am proud to be that person who is so out of step!

After 35 years of working with children with learning difficulties, children with behavioural difficulties, displaced children and emotionally abused children, I have come to a place where I do not accept that LOVE is the prime motivator of the human animal. Nor do I accept that shelter or even survival are the main motivators.

My work with children has finally led me to believe that what is of prime importance to each and every one of us is ACCEPTANCE, and being ACCEPTABLE.  I believe that much of what we do, and in particular, how we do it, is based on a predominating personal fear of not being acceptable. We iron our clothes, we brush our hair, we are cordial in our interactions so as to ensure our acceptability to others.

This is particularly evident in the so-called 'DYS-LEXIC' child where this fear can often become a low-level paranoia. "I am not good enough", "I am not acceptable", "I get it wrong, I will be rejected".  This is so often this child's personal experience, and as a result they do not trust adults, and they do not trust themselves, spending their time watching, waiting for the parental outburst that finally signals that dreaded ultimate rejection.

Being normal human beings, their biggest fear is of fear itself, and so they are forever on edge, watchful, apprehensive, so that when this outburst comes it does not take them by surprise.

The reality of the dys-lexic child in the education system (the diesel child locked into a petrol-based learning system) is a daily experience of failure and inadequacy, and of  'getting the short end of the stick'. Hence they see themselves as being 'less-than-acceptable', of being problematic in style, of being unacceptable to others, and so they live a life dominated by a fear of rejection.

Unfortunately, being normal human beings, they often adopt compensatory responses to their area of difficulty (as a sort-of 'fix-it' response), and inadvertently promote their unacceptability through provocative responses:  they can become sullen, morose, aloof, or emotionally needy; they tend to exaggerate or even lie, and deny responsibility; in particularly negative situations they can even become cheats, thieves and bullies - and inadvertently create the rejection they fear so much.

Because our society has a twisted view of what dys-lexia is (most people think that there is something 'wrong' in the child's brain) we respond inadequately and inapropriately to the diesel (dys-lexic) children in our lives, and in our misunderstanding, often make things worse.

When we understand what 'dys-lexia' really is, we will understand how pivotal confusion with language is to their behaviour, and how we (inadvertently) contribute to this.

For information on my seminars, workshops and books, see my web site www.dyslexiadismantled.com

Laughton King
July 2012

NOT A PSYCHOLOGIST

A curious twist of the law requires me to make it very clear to any readers, and to anyone who is interested, that I am no longer a Psychologist.

Yes it is still the case that I have three degrees in Psychology, achieved over seven years of very hard study as a dyslexic student at both Waikato and Auckland Universities in the early 1970's.

It is also still the case that I have spent at least 20 years of my professional life employed by the NZ Government Education Department as an Educational Psychologist, and another 10 years running my own private practice as a Registered Psychologist.

Four years ago I closed that Practice and with my partner, artist Natalie Tate, spent the next four years clocking up 46,000 kilometers in our mobile home/studio around New Zealand.  Natalie painted her way around NZ and I ran 400 seminars and workshops for teachers and parents.

As I was no longer practicing as a Psychologist I terminated my registration, and therefore my association with the NZ Psychologists Board, no longer paying any annual registration fee.  It came as something of a surprise to me to learn that with this act I also legally lost the right to the designation 'psychologist'.

Not only am I not entitled to call myself a psychologist, I cannot use the label 'éx-psychologist', 'retired psychologist', "Psychologist - not registered', nor even 'non-registered Psychologist'.  Somehow a life-time of involvement with psychology seems to have evaporated.

Therefore all references to being a psychologist (except historical statements) have been removed from my website, and I am required to make some clarifying statement at the beginning of every public presentation I make.  In short I have been instructed by the Psychologists Board that I am required to ensure that no member of the public is mislead into thinking that I am, or might be, a psychologist.

I suppose really I should see this as some sort of back-handed compliment, and get on with being what I really am - an Educator.

Laughton
April 2012

Dys-lexia Seminars

Blog piece March 2012

To say that I am computer illiterate is an understatement. In fact I have an enormous fear of laptops and the things they do, that is based in my huge, historic fear of failure, of stuffing up and not being good enough.

In reality it is not the laptop I am afraid of, but rather my capacity to stuff-up when using it. Hence I avoid it whenever possible – and hence I have neither visited nor added to my blog in at least two years. Hardly useful, but that’s how it is - and just to get on to my blog tonight has taken me over an hour!

I have always known that my thinking on any topic develops like a staircase – a flat area for a distance, then an abrupt riser, where the product of my observations and thinking suddenly breakthrough. And I’ve just had another riser. Admittedly this 12 inch riser comes hot on the heels of a 45 mile long flat area, but it is better than nothing.

Over the last five years I have been touring New Zealand and parts of Australia presenting seminars to teachers, parents and kids, under the banner of DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED. So far, around 410 presentations. It has suddenly dawned on me that these have been slowly evolving into a three-part series.

The first part comes from my observations of children over 35 years operating as an educational psychologist, and involves identifying what it is that makes these children different from others, understanding how that works, and building a useful pictorial model to work with.

The second part involves examining the implications of this in terms of the individual child’s academic performance, their behaviour, and their (resulting) self-concept.

The third part is the complex process of applying the learnings of the first two, in terms of what we need to do to work with these children in a more useful way. That involves identifying what we should stop doing, and what we should do differently to allow these children to engage, and to find more success in school.

In the seminars each of these parts takes about two hours in their briefest form, meaning that we can do two hour seminars, four hour, or whole day presentations to get the basic ideas across. Schools commonly request a second, whole day workshop once that have had an initial exposure and directly experienced the positive impact across the school.

As the response to these seminars causes me to look closer at the ‘problem’ of dys-lexia, more and more I am convinced that dys-lexia is actively caused by the way in which we teach in our schools, (see my comments on putting petrol into diesel engines in earlier blogs), and that it is initially more an issue of what we need to stop doing, rather than what we need to learn to do – although this is surely a challenge as well.

For those who may be interested; I am not employed by any organization, nor do I belong to any group. Now that I have stopped paying my annual fees, I am officially not a ‘psychologist’ any more either.

With no organization behind me I rely on other people to arrange my speaking engagements in their home area. Thus, if you are interested in a seminar or workshop in your school, town or area, please email me directly. I may ask you to consider inviting other schools etc in your area to also have seminars, in order to make the travel factor affordable. A week’s work in any part of NZ or Australia generally makes it a viable exercise.(laughton.king@win.co.nz).

Cheers,

Laughton

DYSLEXIA MOVIES

DYSLEXIA MOVIES

There are now several movies that clearly focus on aspects od Dyslexia - although this may not be acknowledged in their public promotion.

Many people will have seen the excellent Aamir Kahn movie TAARE ZAMEEN PAR which examines some of the school-based frustrations and anxiety of a small Indian school boy.

Few people however are likely to have recognised that the brilliant Kate Winslet movie THE READER, set in post WW2 Europe, is a brilliant presentation of the moment to moment life events of a woman whose entire existence is tragically determined by her (unidentified) dyslexia.

Similarly the more recent Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush movie THE KINGS'SPEECH focusses on one significant aspect of the life of King George 6th (our Queen's father), and the speech difficulties he experienced, predictably

2010 Seminar Itinerary and New Book, DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED

Laughton King,

Educational Psychologist, Author, Visiting speaker,

offers short seminars to teachers and parents regarding dyslexia and the learning difficulties associated with this common thinking style.

Having practiced as an Educational, Child and Family Psychologist for thirty years, Laughton has now closed his practice in Whangarei, and is touring New Zealand. Taking his life-time experience as a ‘dyslexic learner’ and his thirty years as a professional practitioner, to the road, he has spent the last three years touring the country, visiting both cities and the smaller centers, offering short seminars to local communities – teachers, teacher aides, parents and specialist educators.

Having delivered 185 seminars in the South Island in 2008/09, in 2010 he will be in the North Island, progressively working northwards through the year; 1^st term – Wellington area.

2^nd term – Taranaki, Taupo, Rotorua

3^rd term – Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Waikato

4^th term – South Auckland.

SEMINARS

These seminars range from 90 minutes to three hours, and involve three major components;

A. Developing an understanding and pictorial definition of ‘dyslexia’, and recognising the difficulties in establishing such a definition.

B. Looking at the implications for the child – the child’s experience.

C. Looking at the implications for the teacher and parent.

This allows both parents and teachers to identify the children in question, to understand and perceive them differently, and thence to respond to them more usefully.

The gains for both the children and adults is marked, and immediate.

LAUGHTON KING - PSYCHOLOGIST M.Soc.Sci, Dip Ed Psych

Presenting seminars for teachers and parents –
DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED

“As a dyslexic person myself, I have a fair understanding of the nightmare that many of these children are living through.”

“There is nothing ‘wrong’ with the child – just as there is nothing ‘wrong’ with a diesel engine – we just need to learn that it works differently from a petrol engine, and needs different fuel.

“Being dyslexic, and being academically qualified, as well as being professionally experienced, I am in a reasonably rare position. I see this as being a privilege - but it carries an obligation.

“My obligation, and my mission is simply to assist the teachers, and the parents of these children to understand their style and their reality.

“I am currently on the final year of a self-funded, four-year tour of New Zealand, taking every opportunity I can to assist these children – of which there are probably five or more in every classroom in the country.

“Short teacher training seminars, sessions for Teacher Aides and Learning Support workers, evening seminars for parents – an introduction to a different way of viewing the child. This can make all the difference.

……………………….

LAUGHTON’S BOOKS

“REACHING THE RELUCTANT LEARNER – a manual of strategies for Teachers and Parents.

- Laughton King. 178 pages. 3rd edition, self-published 2006, NZ.

This very practical and helpful manual focuses on the learning difficulties that come under the ‘umbrella’ notion of ‘Dyslexia’. The author examines why such difficulties are so common in our schools - right around the English-speaking world - and before giving parents and teachers insights as to how to work usefully with these children, demonstrates what the world is like from the inside for these children.

He looks at how these children think, at how they understand the world, at the impact on their behaviour, and at what life is like for them – on the inside. He includes a biographical section based around his own personal experiences as a ‘dyslexic’ child.

In clarifying the fundamental differences between linguistic and pictorial thinking styles, and the connection between learning difficulty and behaviour problems, this book opens the way for parents and teachers to reach, and therefore to effectively teach so-called reluctant learners.

“WITH, NOT AGAINST”

- a compendium of positive parenting strategies.

- Laughton King. 121 pages. Self–published Second Edtn 2008.

Written with the busy parent in mind, this book is orientated to taking the head-on fight out of parenting, and is based on the author’s thirty years of clinical work with parents of young children.

This book is written as a practical manual, has a simple, bite-size presentation and is free from the pages of theory that commonly restrict easy access to useful information.

The book focuses on the small things parents do that make it difficult for children to comply and co-operate, and gives examples and illustrations of how we can easily work with our children to achieve happier households.

Includes; Bedtime strategies, Behaviour management, Language of parenting, Toileting, Mealtime behaviour, Arguments, use of Praise and Humour, amongst other issues that can make parenting a lonely and difficult role.

“DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED”

- a practical breakdown of the myths and realities of dyslexia.

Laughton King Self-published, March 2010 NZ

Finally, an insightful, clear and practical breakdown of the realities of dyslexia, from the author’s own life experience. This exposition of the thinking, learning and living style that characterise the dyslexic individual is written equally for the educator, the parent and the struggling dyslexic himself.

Eighteen myths dispelled, 61 personal characteristics outlined, and a raft of indicators examined, this book will help a large section of the population understand their own normality, their own intact and integrated thinking style, and allow them to take positive charge of their learning processes and their functioning in society.

There is nothing wrong with their brain wiring, they are not deficient, they do not need medication. As a diesel motor differs from a petrol engine, the so-called ‘dyslexic’ differs from the non-dyslexic in a simple and rudimentary way.

The Western world has a modern education system based around language as the prime learning tool – teaching, learning and assessment are typically language-based. The ‘dyslexic’ person is disadvantaged in this system, not only because is he a pictorial thinker, but because he is unable to process the language-based education system at a competitive level.

…………………………………

COSTS

Books; Each book, $50 plus postage.

Seminars; 90 minute staff meetings $150.

Three-hour parent evening $300

Inquiries and Orders to Laughton via email; laughton.king@win.co.nz

Laughton King is a Educational Psychologist, Mediator, and Counselor who has worked with children and parents in schools and their homes throughout New Zealand over the last thirty-five years. He has published in parenting magazines all around the world, and is well-known as a public speaker/trainer.

----- Original Message -----